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Oolong and strawberry…from Teavivre! When I first saw there were flavoured options (aside from the fruit only ones), I thought I’d only find floral additions…rose, jasmine, etc but no, there were two fruit options! So I immediately requested them for my next sample box, which just came today.

The dry leaf smells like a mix of a milk oolong and a bit of real strawberry, none of that fake stuff here. There’s a sweet and somewhat tart scent that mingles with the creamy oolong aroma. The leaves are pretty tightly rolled, as you’d expect from this sort of oolong base.

I used my bamboo tea spoon, which I think holds about 1tsp or so, on average. I let the boiling water cool a few minutes and steeped 3 minutes. First sips, unsweetened, I get an equal balance of oolong and strawberry, none overpowers the other (though I do wish the strawberry was slightly more prominent). Sweetened, with just a tad of sugar (less than I normally take) the strawberry becomes juicier and sweeter. I bet this one would be amazing with some local honey. Wondering about future steeps and iced. The leaves definitely have more unfurling to do, so I expect a few more good steeps at least.

I was really excited to try this tea, and I am not disappointed. I’ve thrown a packet into my best friend’s birthday tea box, but if it was anyone else, I’d pretend I didn’t have any and horde it all to myself. :P

Many many thanks, and much gratitude to Angel at Teavivre for making my strawberry oolong dreams become a reality. I do hope they continue to make more flavoured teas like this in the future.

Ok, so I just got my box of samples from Teavivre this morning and wanted to tear right into them and start drinking. Of this box, I was most excited about the flavoured ones (strawberry oolong and peach jasmine dragon pearl green) but as I had started the day with a keemun yesterday, I thought I’d have the keemun grade 1 today to compare.

I have to say that this one is milder. It’s less smoky than the Red Blossom from yesterday. I do taste a bit of a cocoa (as opposed to actual chocolate) flavour, and a bit grainy. I admit I do not pick up anything floral or fruity. I would say that if there was anything fruity, it would probably be more like a black plum, or maybe date…but any fruit flavour is really mild and indistinguishable from the richer cocoa and grain flavours.

I do think that my straight black tea palate is growing some, so whereas I may not have liked the previous keemun from Teavivre as much, it has grown on me. That said, I think I still prefer the Fengqing Dragon Pearls and Superfine Tan Yang Gong Fu over this, but it is a nice smooth flavour that is great to start the day with.

I do thank Angel at Teavivre for providing yummy samples for review, and I can’t wait to try more from my box. Expect a tasting from one of the fruit ones soon…probably the strawberry oolong. I am excited about this round of samples. :)

From sil…had this with my brunch this morning with hubby since he prefers straight black teas with milk and sugar, English style. Even used my two English bone china tea cups (thrift store finds).

Anyway, about the tea. The first think I noticed was a light smoky taste. I’m not typically a fan of smoky teas, but this one seems ok, and probably the edge of my smoky tea comfort zone. There was a slight smoky smell to the dry leaf, as well as a sort of thickness. I didn’t find the brew to look thick, but on the tongue, it was a bit thick. Next taste was probably a bit grainy, followed by a hint of floral, though not sure WHICH floral.

All in all I would say this is a nice straight black tea that I got multiple steeps out of. I think though, that I’d like to try out other keemuns and see if I can find one a little less smoky. This one is pretty good though, but I think I like my Teavivre blacks a little more. I might have to do a side by side with those. I have a few places in town I can get this kind of tea from, so I might explore that option too.

Backlog…had this again yesterday, and it was as great as ever. It is less pineapple and more cake with a dash of maraschino cherry, but still delicious. I definitely want to get more of this. I serves as a great light and sweet black tea, one that I am perfectly ok with having without milk. I feel like milk might destroy the light and subtle sweet flavour of this tea.

Thanks to sil for sending this one to me. I have one serving (but maybe two steeps?) worth left. Will be a sad sip down, but I know I will be buying more.

I like chocolate teas, a lot, and I love almond and amaretto anything, so assuming I’m at least partially ok with coconut, it stands to reason that this is a tea I should like. Well folks reason doesn’t fail me.

I the sample pouch from shmiracles I got recently, it smells like chocolatey almondy divinity. Brewed it is a bit more subdued, but still there. I do have it sweetened with a small amount of sugar, but no milk, since I’m out…but this was one I had a feeling would be ok without, but probably amazing with (luckily, I have more of the sample).

If we end up doing a Della Terra co-op order, this is one I will consider adding. It’s pretty good.

New tasting with the spring harvest!

The leaves on this one are fluffy, but kind of twisted. The dry leaf has a light, sweet smell to it. Brewed, it is a bit more brothy and vegetal. I found that this tea was not as mild as before, but I anticipated that and added in a little more leaf. I am not sure that was wise, but it wasn’t un-wise. I did get a stronger flavour with more leaf, but maybe I had wanted something a little lighter after all. I think I lost out on some of the sweetness I smelled in the dry leaf that way.

I’m not good at describing subtle tastes in tea, so I can’t make out what veggies it tastes like, but it was a little more savoury than the sweet that I was expecting.

This tasting was better than the previous, I think. I’m not sure if it is because it is a different harvest, or the brewing parameters changed.

Many thanks to Angel at Teavivre for providing this sample for review.

Yum, yum, yum! This is very much like Big Apple from David’s Tea, only it is slightly heavier and richer due to the addition of the black tea and chocolate bits. It’s a very very tasty tea(!). It makes me want to try mixing Big Apple with something else, maybe like Love Tea #7 or something.

Yes, yes, and YES!!!

(thanks for sending this shmiracles)

A little surprised with this one. Not at all what I expected. Well, partially what I expected in terms of flavour, but with a name like black buckwheat, I guess I was expecting something akin to a genmaicha with black tea and buckwheat.

I’m enjoying this mild tea now, though as I wanted caffeine to help my headache, it’s not helping any. I didn’t add anything to this and it’s fine, but I wonder what a dab of honey with this would be like.

Thanks to sil for sending this unusual tea to me to try.

Sipdown, latte style. Thanks to sil for letting me try this one. It’s pretty tasty and has a nice comfort feel. It is a bit of a dessert tea, but that’s ok, I love this kind of tea. Chocolate teas are one of my favourites.

This could have a place in my collection, more regularly, though I have a similar one from Della Terra that just came today, so I will have to see which I like better.